Two Huge Highlights from Lausanne III

Jason Carter:

Perhaps the strongest prophetic voice issuing from Cape Town came from Dr. Joseph D’Souza from India when he spoke out against the Indian Caste System as (a form of modern) slavery in its subjugation of 250 millionDalit peoples. D’Souza made the point that if apartheid was wrong, then so too the Caste System: “25% of India’s population — 250 million people — has no rights, dehumanized, segregated, and silently enduring an apartheid system in India. We, of course, in India hang our heads in shame…” D’Souza stated that there are more slaves in our world today than when William Wilberforce fought the Transatlantic slave trade and closed his rousing and prophetic message by calling forth the involvement of the global church: “I am here to say to you here at Cape Town that nothing but the concerted opinion and involvement of the global church will bring down human civilization’s longest lasting slave system.”
I think that D’Souza’s eight minutes on the Lausanne platform, 20 years from now, might be one of the defining hallmarks of Lausanne III if the global church – working with Dalit Christians – manages to prophetically speak out and live out Christ’s transforming power in the midst of this (unbelievably) large-scale injustice, reconstituting Indian society from the bottom-up for the glory of Christ.

Later on in his post:

In many respects, the Congress was a passing of the baton to a new generation of mission leaders as the two names most closely associated with the Lausanne movement in Billy Graham and John Stott could only participate “in spirit” via letters due to their advanced ages. Yet, perhaps it was a pastor, theologian and writer who did the very best Billy Graham impersonation during the entire Congress. John Piper, in his exposition of Ephesians 3 during the third morning session, passionately urged the Lausanne Congress not to forget the priority of world evangelization – an important moment within the Congress. Piper asked if the Congress might affirm the following statement: “We Christians care about all human suffering but especially eternal suffering.” Piper’s charge/confrontation was characteristically an old school call for a new day of mission in the midst of new challenges for the global church. It was a call for the global church to continue to be bold in making evangelism the center of the church’s work and witness. And, I’m sure, Billy was smiling.

Read the rest.